research suggest that key motivations for parents to buy non—essential items for their children are the desire to be seen by other parents as a good provider and for their children to have the same things and opportunities as their peers, or to prevent them from being teased or bullied.
"I feel pressure from other parents, like – that parent's done it, why haven't I and should I do it?"
"Sometimes if I 'm at work and I'm feeling guilty because I 'm at work... Then I might buy something. I'm guilty of purchasing things because of that."
Parents, Review qualitative research
"My eldest's school shoes and coat were bought out of us worrying that he may be bullied if it wasn't the right look."
"The problem is that parents sometimes feel the peer pressure too and often feel almost forced to buy certain products because other parents are. They feel like bad parents if they don't."
Parents, Call for Evidence response
It is also clear that the persistence with which children ask for things is another influence (Phoenix, 2011). Children and young people freely acknowledge their use of 'pester power':
- Nearly a third (32 per cent) of children in the omnibus survey for the Review say that if they really want something and they know their parents do not want them to buy it, they will always keep on asking until their parents let them have it. More than half (52 per cent) say they sometimes do this and only 15 per cent said they never do (Figure 8).
- Over three quarters of children and young people who responded to a survey run by the Children and Young People's Advisory Group of the Office of the Children's Commissioner (Children's Commissioner and Amplify, 2011) thought that children and young people put pressure on their parents to buy things for them.
